.

Kidulthood

Analysing British
social realism –
generic
conventions.
Themes: Violence.
 ‘Kidulthood’ starts of with a scene of a class or year of teenagers in a
playground, then there’s a shot of one student modifying a gun. Straight
away we see a weapon of violence before we’ve even been introduced
to the main characters. When Katie and her friend are talking there is a
shot over to a group of girls who are seen as Katie’s bully’s, we can tell
this from when her friend says ‘their watching us, did you finish the
coursework for them’, this gives us the idea there is tension between
these groups of characters. We also see forms of violence between
different sex’s when we see the main character Sam spits in Katie’s hair
just to get her to tell him something, also in this part of the opening
sequence we always see verbal violence between Sam and another girl
when he says ‘what you looking at you fat bitch’. A British social realism
audience may relate to a theme in a film like this because it is
something real that is going on in peoples everyday lives and maybe
something they have witnessed before.
Themes: sex
 From this opening sequence we can see that one of Kidulthood’s
main themes is sex. Straight away we hear two girls talking
about things that have done, and the way their so open about it
and are speaking reasonably loud we see that it is a normal
thing they discuss in their everyday life. The next image of sex
we see is from Claire and Jay behind a tree, hiding from her
‘boyfriend’ and cheating on him, we hear him say ‘you like this
init’. As a theme sex is shown through the rest of the film as
something that creates a storyline and is one of the things which
carries the film forward. This will appeal to a British niche
audience and less likely to appeal to a mainstream Hollywood
audience because their not used to such themes being in a film.
Themes: smoking, addiction and
drugs.
 In this opening sequence there isn’t a lot of talk about drugs and
smoking yet we do get a vibe as an audience that this will be
involved when two boys are talking about their party and saying
how anything can go and how his parents aren't going to be
there, which may suggest things that they know their not meant
to be doing will be happening. We hear Becky and Alisa talking
about drugs although she says she’s given up. Addiction to sex
can also be seen, with Jay and Claire doing things behind a tree
may imply they cant wait till they get home and that they need
it. This may appeal to a British audience because some of them
may relate to the theme of smoking, addiction and drugs, they
may have experienced this in their life.
Themes: class
 Right away from this opening sequence we see that the characters
in this film are all from either working class family’s or
underclass family’s. This can be seen by a range of things
starting at their dialogue and also the mise-en-scene of the film.
The names of the characters can also be stereotyped as names
for people from a certain class or of a certain ethnicity, for
example there are people we see right away that are called;
Shaneek, Carleen, Trife and Moony. These are names you would
not associate with a Middleclass family. This may appeal to a
British audience because their aware or certain situations in
classes and some may be in the same class as the characters.
Mise-en-scene
 The mise-en-scene in the opening sequence of Kidulthood shows
the situation that the characters are in. The location is on the
school grounds and also we see that all characters are wearing
school uniforms this means right away we connote the age of
the main characters. However each character has done
something different to their uniform for example Becky is
wearing large hoop earrings which is usually against school
uniforms, this could be a sign of them showing a sign of
rebellion. British audiences may relate to the mise-en-scene
because the main target audience is teenagers and they can
relate to being in school and wanting to rebel against teachers
and authority figures.
Dialogue:
 The dialogue in kidulthood’s opening sequence is very chatty and
there is a lot of swearing even when it is not needed. Right away
we see Becky and Alisa talking about things they have done over
the weekend and we hear them say ‘Proper ghetto, proper
grimey’. This is language mainly only people from London will
understand. The characters also have a strong East London
accent. We also hear one of the main characters Sam call Katie
a ‘pussy hole’ and her friend a ‘fat bitch’. This is something that
was uncalled for as they are just standing there and haven’t
done anything to him. This may appeal to a British audience
because all the characters are English and also speak like people
do in everyday life.
Editing:
 The editing in the opening sequence of Kidulthood really helps
show the location, characters and the storyline right away. The
amount of shots that are shown in the opening sequence help
connote to the audience straight away who the main characters
are and the relationships between them. There are a few shots
where the pace is faster and this may show the rush for the
characters to grow up, or hurry out of school. There is a slow
motion shot of a boy playing football and we see this shot many
times, it used to break down shots and connect ones together
but you can also denote that they have nothing better to do and
that they could be doing school work but are not, or we could
connote that not all teenagers are thinking about sex and
smoking and some are just having fun.
Camera (shots, movements)
 Also the camera work in the opening sequence of Kidulthood helps
show the audience the mise-en-scene well. There is a pan were
we as an audience feel as if we are in the film with the
characters. There’s a shot-reverse-shot where we see who Katie
and her friend are talking about and we see the look that they
give them to show us that their being bullied. The camera shots
while Trife is modernising the gun makes the audience not know
what he is doing and this therefore makes them want to watch
more and understand what is going on. We get a shot on each of
the main groups of characters in the film.
Sub genre:

‡One sub genre for the film Kidulthood may be teenage life
style. All the characters are teenagers and the themes are all
things that appeal to a British working class/underclass
audience. One of the first locations we see is a school and this
also relates to teenage lifestyle. Teenage crime and violence
can also be a subgenre of Kidulthood. Right away we see that a
young teenager is modernising a gun which right away gives us a
feel that there is going to be a lot of violence throughout the
film.

 Question:
 What impact has this research had on the
development of your ideas?



This research has helped me develop my ideas of themes that I may
include in opening sequence and also has helped me decide if I am
going to follow the conventions for a British social realism film or if
I am going to go against them. I’ve realised how much, mise-en-
scent, camera work, dialogue and editing has an effect on what
themes are being portrayed and how they also effect the genre and
sub genres. This research has had a large impact in the
development of my ideas.